Earl Weaver Played Moneyball before Moneyball | Baseball Bits

this episode of baseball bits is brought to you by the athletic for the best baseball coverage you can find use my link at the athletic comm slash foolish baseball for a 7-day free trial as well as 40% off your annual subscription [Applause] Earl Weaver was as temperamental as they come this legendary argument with umpire bill Haller is one of his 94 career rejections which is tied for third all-time but he's also one of the greatest tactician 'he's in baseball history as a contrast to the furious and diminutive Earl Weaver I present Billy Beane of the Oakland A's a man so smooth he was portrayed by Brad Pitt and the movie adaptation of the landmark Michael Lewis book Moneyball you're probably familiar but the subtitle to the Moneyball book was the art of winning an unfair game it followed the low-budget 2002 Oakland Athletics as they took on teams with payrolls up to three times greater than their own Earl Weaver wasn't playing an unfair game the Baltimore Orioles that he managed weren't a group of misfits they were talented players but the oils of the 1970s in the Moneyball A's of the early 2000s shared an extremely similar core set of values hence the title Earl Weaver played Moneyball before Moneyball Weaver was a relentless tinkerer who didn't adhere to baseball status quo he didn't care about a player's optics he just wanted good results one of the iconic moments in Moneyball involves GM Billy Beane insisting his Scouts stop focusing on players bodies looks or the attractiveness of their girlfriends when doing talent evaluations a girlfriend means no confidence okay Rowe Weaver ran his ball club similarly and during his 14-year tenure as Orioles manager they won more games than any other team in Major League Baseball the team will be focusing on most is the 1970 Baltimore Orioles it was Weaver's second full season as manager the 1969 Orioles of the previous year were powerhouses as well but happened upset in the World Series by the miracle Mets so the 1970 Orioles were on a mission to redeem themselves and it all starts with the number one rule of Moneyball getting on base a walk isn't as good as a single but it's really close a single can advance runners by multiple bases but that's about it Billy Beane's Moneyball A's obsessed over acquiring good on pace percentage guys like Chris Pratt Scott Hatteberg but the 1970 Orioles had some OBP Kings as well let's look at their leadoff hitter Don Buford who rocked a 406 on-base percentage in 1970 he possessed the fifth highest walk rate in the American League finishing just behind a couple Hall of Famers in Harmon Killebrew and Carl Yastrzemski rolling with a leadoff hitter with serious on base skills as expected in 2020 but 50 years ago that wasn't always the practice the Yankees you know the same organization that has won 27 championships went with a guy named Horace Clark as their leadoff hitter they liked his prototypical leadoff speed as he stole 23 bases but his on-base percentage gross get that off my screen if we expand the parameter to the entirety of Earl Weaver's main stint with the Orioles we can see that they didn't just walk more than any other American League team but had over 500 more bases on balls than the second place Red Sox during Weaver's tenure and while the 1970 Orioles boasted great everyday hitters like Don Buford they also had some great OBP guys on the bench as well let's talk about what Earl Weaver did with his available personnel [Music] back in the Oakland A's war room Billy Brad Pitt has a problem he's trying to replace two departed stars in Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon he can't replace them but he can replace their production one way to get star production - the stars is via platooning and Earl Weaver was no stranger to this his best known platoon came later in his tenure as Orioles manager when he used the right-handed Gary ray Nikki and the left-handed john lowenstein in left field let's take a look at 1979 you probably don't know rena key and Loewenstein but there's a good chance you do know Steve Garvey the star Dodgers first baseman who was a perennial all-star and MVP vote getter at the time you can see he put up some really great numbers in 1979 but if you view rena key and loewenstein is one player suddenly you're getting a very comparable level of production worse average sure but a better OPP and similar slugging over basically the same amount of plate appearances Earl Weaver you sly dog if we take it back to the 1970 squad we have to talk about merv rettenmund to call this guy a bench player would be disingenuous he racked up nearly 400 plate appearances in over a hundred games that's close to an everyday player I would say he was similar to 2018 max Muncie there wasn't a consistent spot for him but his skills demanded playing time I'd like to dig deeper into the bench Terry Crowley was a 257 hitter that year but Earl Weaver loved the on-base percentage and walk rate 18.4% he gets on base a lot Rocco do I care to walk her hit Pete did you not I'll do you one better how about a guy with a 226 batting average and Curt motton with that OBP nice the end result was that pinch hitters for the 1970 Orioles rocked at 345 on-base percentage compared to the 298 League average and that's no coincidence in his book Weaver on strategy which outlines of Weaver's managerial philosophy one of his laws of baseball is that your most precious possessions on offense are your 27 outs a walk is the act of avoiding it out and keeping an ending alive and that's what makes them so good now let's talk about something that is more emphasized by the current day Oakland Athletics a team that boasts a skilled infield with guys like Chapman Marcus Semien and Matt Olsen defense is a big part of Oakland in 2020 and it was big in Baltimore under Weaver now we're starting to get to the real core of the 1970 Orioles let's start with Brooks Robinson Brooks Robinson has the reputation of being the best defensive third baseman of all time and advanced metrics like total zone and defensive runs saved will tell you just that if you want to learn more about those types of metrics you can always check out my Andrelton Simmons video Robinson was a pioneer he made the hot corner of thing and has only recently been challenged for his crown by 21st century superstars like Adrian Beltre Nolan Arenado and the Afro mentioned Matt Chapman this right here is the iconic Brooks Robinson play a throw from foul ground to retire Lee made Game one of the 1970 World Series which was a legendary performance from Robinson as a whole his infield partner in crime was mark Belanger someone who I overlooked in my video about angel 10 Simmons and Ozzie Smith vilandra was worse than mediocre with the bat in his hands but he was statistically up there with The Wizard of Oz defensively in fact if you look at Deewar Robinson and Bollinger have the distinction of being the number 2 and number 3 most valuable defenders of all time and they were teammates who combined 424 Gold Glove awards it's only one thing that they didn't say that Brooks Robinson longed in heaven not here on the ground because the way he plays third I've never seen nothing like it but there's one more guy who deserves our attention center fielder Paul Blair who is the greatest defensive centerfielder of all time most people would say either Willie Mays or Andruw Jones but in terms of the metrics Paul Blair actually comes out in third place if we just do our range factor map from 1970 we can see that he made 61 outs above the average centerfielder that season absolutely insane stuff it's no wonder he won eight Gold Gloves of his own fast forward a few years later and the 1973 Weaver Orioles with the addition of Bobby Grich who should be in the Hall of Fame put together the best defensive squad of all time by total zone the Orioles defense was immense during Weaver's tenure as opposing hitters experienced the lowest Babbitt batting average on balls and play in all of baseball that's the kind of thing that greatly benefits a pitching staff you know what's a very cash money ball thing to do try having three A's pitchers on your squad but ignoring them because it doesn't fit the narrative the 2002 Moneyball A's had this with sy young winner Barry Zito Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder and the 1970 Orioles had this with sy young winner Mike Cuellar Dave McNally and Hall of Famer Jim Palmer in 1971 they would add Pat Dobson to create a staff with four 20-game winners something that we'll likely never see again much of Weaver's offensive strategy was reflected in his pitching philosophy if his offense was about getting on base his pitching was about not giving away free baserunners one way that teams give away free baserunners is through the bean ball the intentional hit by pitch Earl Weaver hated this process stating that he didn't want his players to throw at anyone if you look at the numbers that claim holds up during his run from 1969 to 1982 the oils hit fewer batters than any non-expansion Major League team the Mariners and Blue Jays were added partway through this stretch so I did count them walks have to be earned to some extent but they represent a free pass to first base as well Weaver's pitching staff had the third lowest walk rate over the exact same stretch in terms of the world series 1970 squad the Orioles allowed the fewest runs in all of baseball that season something interesting was happening in big-league ball pens the save statistic was invented in 1959 and had been officially tracked since the previous season 1969 as a result T's were starting to use relievers differently the modern closing pitcher was born but it was harmful to game strategy in some ways one of my pieces of sabermetric wisdom is don't be a slave to the save the best situation for your top reliever isn't always when you're leading in the ninth buck saves aren't a great measure of talent more than anything they're a measure of how many save situations the team will put you in the Moneyball A's abuse this to some extent they'd rack up saves with a pitcher like Billy Koch ship him out of town rinse and repeat in 1970 the Cincinnati Reds who the Orioles face in the World Series had a reliever named Wayne Granger he was frequently used in the ninth inning and saved 35 games that season he also face an average leverage index of 1.9 zero one is average so he was definitely used in high-pressure high leverage situations then there was Orioles ace reliever Pete Richert he had a lower ara but significantly fewer saves what he did have however was an even higher leverage index because of Weaver's bullpen flexibility he was able to use Richard and better situations than the Reds used Granger you love to see it so what exactly happened to the 1970 Orioles the 1970 Orioles cruised to a hundred and eight wins in the regular season they swept the Minnesota Twins to win the pennant and defeated the Cincinnati Reds and five games to finish as one of the best teams in baseball history this is not to criticize Michael Lewis but another barely mentioned player on the Moneyball A's was the 2002 AL MVP Miguel Tejada he was a superstar not a misfit the 1970 Orioles had some players like this as well specifically Boog Powell who also won MVP that season as well as Frank Robinson who is simply one of the best to ever do it baseball misses him dearly Earl Weaver didn't create a good team out of bat ballplayers but his tactical thinking allowed a talented team to reach his full potential one of the subplots in Moneyball involves Billy Beane strained relationship with manager Philip Seymour art Hoffman who Lewis portrayed perhaps unfairly as a staunch traditionalist the implication was that bean could acquire the players but baseball's old-school managers were actually ready to implement Moneyball on the field yet here's Earl Weaver playing proto Moneyball decades before the word even entered our cultural lexicon even Bill James praised Weaver's managerial style particularly the way he put his players in advantageous situations Weaver once described his strategy as being based on pitching defense and three-run home runs an approach that echoes through to today when the percentage of runs scored via the long ball is nearing 50% the exact definition of Moneyball is a tricky question some might say it's just about on-base percentage others feel it's the implementation of sabermetrics as a whole to me Moneyball wasn't about the efficiency of the Oakland A's it was about the inefficiency that plagued the rest of the industries it's not so much that Oakland was smart but that other teams were for the lack of a better word foolish right now every major league franchise is playing money ball to some degree which means that no team is actually playing money ball the Yankees and Dodgers have huge payrolls and are simultaneously two of the smartest run organizations in the league this means different areas of the game such as player development are where the teams gain the competitive advantage in today's MLB Earl Weaver managed his last game in 1986 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame a decade later he passed in 2013 at the age of 82 when Moneyball was published it sent a shock wave throughout the baseball landscape and completely changed the way America's pastime was played but it didn't spring up out of nowhere Earl Weaver helped plant the seeds of Moneyball with his beloved Baltimore Orioles unless he got ejected from the game that day then he couldn't really do much [Music] this episode of baseball bits was brought to you by the athletic the athletic provides its readers with the best baseball coverage and storytelling available they employ a world-class team of riders that cover all your favorite organizations at the local level as well as at the league level and that goes for almost any sport you can imagine on top of this the website and app are completely app free so no more annoying pop-ups you can use my link at the athletic comm slash foolish baseball for 40% off your yearly subscription as well as a 7-day free trial once again thank you to the athletic for sponsoring this episode of baseball bits [Music]

Channel: Foolish Baseball

Views: 352,766

Rating: 4.9620872 out of 5

Keywords: moneyball, earl weaver, earl weaver ejections, earl weaver orioles, oakland as, moneyball as, moneyball oakland, gm billy beane, billy beane oakland, baltimore orioles, baltimore orioles world series 1970, scott hatteberg, paul blair, don buford, mark belanger, brooks robinson, moneyball he gets on base, brad pitt moneyball, chris pratt moneyball, baseball strategy, baseball, mlb, foolish baseball, baseball bits, michael lewis moneyball, mlb managers, weaver argument

Id: yVPURehF_6c

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 14 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/foolishbaseball]

Hopefully this gives you 15 minutes of peace in a world without baseball.

[u/Noy_Telinu]

u/foolishbaseball that is why I call them the oreos. Well that and I can't spell.

[u/harriswill]

During last year's College World Series the Michigan Wolverines employed "the phantom DH", where you list a starter on his offday as a DH in the bottom of the order

Why do that? When the DH's spot comes up you can either pinch hit with a RHH or LHH depending on how the opponents starter did

Why don't you see this in the MLB? Earl Weaver kept doing this in the 80s and MLB changed the rule so a DH must have one PA before he can be substituted

[u/DavidRFZ]

Back in the 90s when the sabermetric movement was just taking off on usenet, Earl Weaver was a bit of a hero.

[u/handlit33]

Kudos to Foolish Baseball for creating content in a time when it's need most.

[u/d_world_destruction]

this video is absolutely incredible

[u/[deleted]]

Whitey Herzog was another free thinker as was Showalter.

[u/HoopOnPoop]

Pitching, defense, and the 3 run home run

[u/Solar424]

You've got some nerve putting the 2016 ALWC in a video about the Orioles.